Pond Coming Soon

[Spanky]

I have always wanted a small backyard pond to grow amazing water plants, some goldfish and attract wildlife. My son bought me a kit with a 15' x 15' liner with skimmer and falls filter, etc. It is already late in the year, but I want to build it before winter and plant/stock it in spring next year. Most of the hobby ponds that I see are intended to look natural but they do not. I am considering a geometric modern design with square pavers as coping and some kind of modern artsy waterfall rather than trying to fake a natural look. Also can I somehow fuse another small liner to give me a bit of a run from the waterfall filter to the pond?

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome @Spanky ! You're embarking on a fun journey of pond ownership.

I would bet that your comment that "Most of the hobby ponds that I see are intended to look natural but they do not" is not based on time you have spent browsing this site. There are lots of beautiful and natural looking ponds featured by their owners here - but each to their own. If it's a "modern" pond you prefer, then go for it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.

And yes - you can seam liner, but most just choose to overlap the liner instead. As long as the pond liner extends up the wall and the waterfall liner overlaps it down the wall, you don't have to be concerned with seaming.

 

[Spanky]

True. I will do lots of browsing here before deciding upon my design approach. Maybe I will get the courage to try the natural look. I appreciate this community and look forward to the learning.

 

[GBBUDD]

In nature Nothing is even or balanced. rocks can be of varying sizes and colors. This is where I see the most miss a goal of looking natural. when all the rocks are the same size and they are line up end to end and in a perfect circle. The water fall centered to one end of the pond the balance is not natural. Contemporary designs can be very cool in the right setting for sure and are a heck of a lot easier to build Trying to stack oblonged boulders that are 4 foot tall compaired to concrete pavers/ retaining wall blocks that are designed to fit together can make a job a lot less stressful it's all in your design.

 

[CometKeith]

I have always wanted a small backyard pond to grow amazing water plants, some goldfish and attract wildlife. My son bought me a kit with a 15' x 15' liner with skimmer and falls filter, etc. It is already late in the year, but I want to build it before winter and plant/stock it in spring next year. Most of the hobby ponds that I see are intended to look natural but they do not. I am considering a geometric modern design with square pavers as coping and some kind of modern artsy waterfall rather than trying to fake a natural look. Also can I somehow fuse another small liner to give me a bit of a run from the waterfall filter to the pond?

Hi and welcome! You will see predominantly two types of ponds here at GPF. One is a watergarden. This is meant to look natural with many types of plants in and around the pond. The pond typically has planting shelves about foot deep for baskets of plants too sit in the water. These types of ponds usually have goldfish and occasionally might have a Koi or two if it is large enough (over 1000 gallons). The other type of ponds you see are more traditionally called Koi ponds. They have few plants other what might fit in a circle to protect them and they typically have straight sides down with no shelves. They can be beautifully landscaped around the pond with rocks and plants, but typically the plants are not in the water. The purpose of these ponds is to raise healthy Koi and eliminate access to the pond from predators. Because Koi can eat plants it is harder to keep plants in these sort of ponds, but sometime you will see some ponds that mix both aspects. Serious Koi owners that collect high value fish generally don't have plants and rocks in their ponds. There is a showcase feature on GPF that you can see some natural looking ponds or modern ponds whichever you are interested in. I also started from a kit 10 years ago and it has been a lot of fun and definitely a good learning experience along the way! re stocking it in the spring... you will need beneficial bacteria to accumulate in order for the pond to properly cycle so the water is healthy for your fish. You might want to consider putting in a few small fish this fall to give it a head start. I would be super reluctant to put in a lot of fish (stock) unless I knew it was properly cycled. Good luck!

 

[sissy]

Welcome and I have seen several modern ponds and love them .There are so many great ideas for them .HGTV an youtube and of course here are a great place to look .When you get hooked believe me you will wonder why you waited .After my neighbor put in a pondless and I saw it on his hill I wish I had done that instead .He has 4 inch's of water at the bottom and all the critters stop by for a drink .He put security cameras up so they could even see it from inside .Seems like his pondless is a lot less work than my pond and he has all the noise of water splashing .

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome Spanky!

 

[Spanky]

Mine will be a watergarden as I am fascinated by all flora and fauna. It will be too small for koi anyway. I'm looking forward to learning from and sharing with you all.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

Water gardens are great, that is what we have, all different sizes. Never wanted to have koi.
If you dig a hole, the best way to make it not look unnatural is the edge, a small shelf that holds rocks that cover the liner. The rocks are partly in the water partly out. @j.w has some good pictures of her edge, looks like a natural pond. The plants growing in and around the rocks help also.

 

[Tara]

Hello, for whatever type of pond you choose, in the end if you are are fascinated by all types of flora, fauna, they are certainly something any type of pond will give you. Best of luck with your pond, progress, and pictures as you go would be nice.

 

[j.w]

@Spanky
You can make the edge of the liner not show by putting in a step or ledge down a few inches and use either your blocks or rocks depending on the look you want. I hide my liner that way using rocks.

Had to net the pond cuz of this guy or gal!

 

[Spanky]

Thanks to all. A 15' square liner doesn't go very far, but I believe that I can build a very pretty 7" x 8" water garden. My idea is to use a bog filter and ignore the waterfall that came with the kit. I will try to include a picture here of my preliminary design. I my bog too big? What would be the proper manifold design? I will happily move this to a more appropriate forum if you suggest it.

 

[Lisak1]

I don't think you can ever have a bog that's "too big" - the bigger the better I think.

Check out this post that @addy1 created to describe the construction of her bog. It's a long thread but worth the read - she covers all the basics:

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/bog-building.6894/page-40#post-390191

 

[Telion]

Really looking forward to your build. The OCD in me loves a unique modern approach with shades of grey and straight lines. Welcome!

 

[Gemma]

Welcome to the forum @Spanky !